ep-no, other legal performance drugs?

I recently saw a link to a product called ep-no on cyclingnews.com (great site) and I was very interested. It seems to have the same effect as EPO but "I THINK" its perfectly legal? I am interested in enhancing my performance in any way as long as its not illegal or damaging to my body.

http://www.dedicatedathlete.com/Page1608.aspx

Do you guys take any drugs to "help you out" with training or is it just cheese sandwiches and bottled water?

I stress again that I am not interested in any illegal drugs.

It could be interesting, but also the same effect could be obtained eating liver and beets (for economy purposes, as example).

Eat some pate, perhaps some mushrooms, and some red meat.

Then some OJ to improve adsorbtion and perhaps some spinach.

It's so very highly unlikely to have the same effect as rH-Epo. Look's like snake oil to me.

Ric

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http://www.cyclecoach.com

Two votes for snake oil.

Like another poster said, if you have a balanced diet you will gain nothing from this... but for some the convenience is probably worth $20/month.

If you mail me 20 bucks I'll make some generic ep-no and bottle it up, then send it right on over to ya.
Send it to this address:

The EPO Ferry
800 You're Dreaming Blvd.
Fantasy Land, CA 95616

This is just a vitamin based red blood cell builder. If you want convenience and are willing to pay for it, go for it. Otherwise, you can just buy the different vitamins that are in it. If you're a cyclist who trains hard and long and you don't supplement iron, folic acid, B6, B12, Vit E and zinc (EP-NO does not contain zinc), then you are more than likely defficient in them and your red blood cells are not at an optimum performance level. Getting them to an optimum performance level would positively alter your blood as EPO does, but the effect will not be nearly as dramatic.

Do yourself a favor and check out Dr Michael Colgan's book "Optimum Sports Nutrition". It came out more than a decade agao, but it's still the best book I've found of its kind. Although I don't believe EP-NO is "snake oil' (though it's begging for those comments with a name like that), educating yourself on this stuff will help avoid getting ripped off on the many other "snake oils" out there...and when in doubt, just research what's on the label.

I will definitely do some more research on those vitamins you mentioned. Research has led me to believe that Caffeine, sodium bicarbonate, sodium cytrate and glycerol are all performance enhancers when used correctly. Altitude tents that thin out oxygen are also performance enhancers but are very pricy. Altitude tents have the same effect as EPO but is probably less dangerous, and its LEGAL!!! as long as you are under 50% hemocratic(spelling???) why take epo then?

Ive also heard of tests proving orange juice helped recovery after a hard ride if you drink orange juice BEFORE hand.

The key is to research the properties of these vitamins and minerals and find study's to prove they are beneficial...its not as easy as just taking a supplement because the label says it works.

The easy was to judge the efficacy of any supplement is if it really worked it would be banned. If it's not banned it's placebo/snake oil.

If you have nutritional deficiencies obviously correcting them will improve your performance but that is very different from improving the performance of a healthy person.

That's incorrect. There are various supplements that aren't banned that are ergogenic in nature (e.g., sodium bicarbonate)

Ric

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http://www.cyclecoach.com

During the 2004 Olympics I read a story in which they recounted how an athlete in ancient Greece had been disqualified from competition because he ate dried figs! It seems they had a rule then that required them to only eat fresh foods that were in season, and he ate dried figs because fresh figs were out of season. Fig doping!

I actually eat figs a lot, so that story really hit home!